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Hometown
Hero
When Wilma Melville, of
Ojai. Calif, (pop. 7,862). retired as a physical
education teacher in 198<S, site created a to do"
list that included: “Learn to train a dog to do
something significant.
"As a youngster 1 always had a dog, and 1
would train them to sit, stay and come," says Mel
ville, 72. But I wanted to do more.
So Melville began disaster search and rescue
canine training, which involves a handler giving a
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L Training
Rescue
Teams
dog signals to sniff out a live person trapped under
rubble. Alter three years of training once a month
with local handlers in Southern California, Melville
realized she and her dog were not making progress,
however. “1 knew' (the training) was being badly
taught because 1 was a teacher." Melville says.
Determined, she began lessons with profes
sional dog trainer Pluis Davern in Gilroy, Calif,
(pop. 11,464). Within a year and a halt, site and her
black Labrador, Murphy, passed the Federal Emer-
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I
t 11
by LEAH
INGRAM
Photos by
Chris Cantk
Search Dog founder Wilma Melville with one of her prized pupils
genev Management Agency (FEMA) certification test tor search
and rescue dogs and joined a disaster response team, the Southern
California FEMA Task Force.
On April 9. 1995, FEMA deployed Mel
ville and Murphy to Oklahoma Citv to aid in
recovery efforts following the bombing ot the
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Melville
wits startled to see other task forces arriving
without rescue dogs and to realize Murphy
was one of only 15 FEMA-certified dogs in
the country. "If everybody is getting trained
the way I had been trained originally," site
recalls saying, "its no wonder there .ire so few
certified dogs."
Within months, Melville founded
the National Disaster Search Dog Foun
dation to train more search and rescue
canine teams. In that tirst year, she put
544,000 of her own money into launch
ing the foundation. By 199". the founda-
tion graduated its first class—three Sacramento, Calif., firefight
ers. "I had already decided that I needed to work with firefighters,"
she savs. They are the first on a scene ot disaster, and they have
the time to train."
Today, the foundation is funded through private donations and picks
up the SIO.OOO tab for each students training. Nearly .ill students are
firefighters, and classes are grouped togedier based on geography. The
foundation generally l<x>ks for dogs at animal shelters, then sends the dogs
Dusty, of the Sacramento (Calif.) Fire Department, picks up a scent.
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Florida firefighter Mike
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